Realizing a 15-year home cinema dream
When a dream becomes a project
Darren and Sabrina from Western Australia built a home fifteen years ago, with a dream of a home cinema. In their new home they had even constructed the space for it, ready for this dream. However, this room with a step ready for raised seating, remained a box, and even became a space for storage.
“Yes, we chose to wait,” explains Darren. “I wanted a great system in there; I didn’t want to just put in something basic. So we took the time to save. The problem was that over that time, the more research I did, the more expensive things got…”
Fifteen years later, the research led to Josh Grondal from Perth’s Hifi Hunter. He had to be the one to conceptualise and realize the couple’s long-held dream.
Careful planning to achieve a superb home cinema
After discussions, Josh went on to not only design the home cinema, but the other smart systems and distributed entertainment throughout the entire home.
Careful planning was important in ensuring the execution of this dream goes smoothly.
“Our design service considers everything that’s required to bring a complete cinema experience into the home,” explains Josh. “From the room layout and positioning, the acoustic calculations, all the equipment specifications and the build documentation, through to the room’s interior design finishes and elements, custom cabinetry, lighting and automation, and how all of this contributes to the theme of the room.”
The brief for the project was clear—a superb home cinema that exceeds reference cinema standards for audio and video. Darren knew that he wanted a high channel count including height speakers for Dolby Atmos content. Everything in the cinema should be concealed for a modern and clean aesthetic.
Using a StormAudio processor to maintain fully immersive audio
Darren has a record collection he has kept since the 1990s, which had not been played for over 30 years, so Josh incorporated a turntable in the system so that the vinyl sound can be enjoyed again on speakers throughout the home.
These audio sources, analogue and digital, go through the StormAudio processor. Josh chose our processor for this home because it could deliver the number of channels demanded by the client, and the quality of processing and upscaling could match the requirements of a system of this calibre.
The StormAudio processor keeps all speaker channels active, upscaling to the full system to maintain fully immersive audio. Josh Grondal describes the transition from floor speakers to the height layer speakers as seamless—“the most immersive Atmos I’ve experienced,” while he describes the post-calibration sound as powerful, punchy and dynamic, “but without being fatiguing,” he says. “It stays comfortable at any volume level, easily reaching reference levels with the speakers running incredibly efficiently. But as well as having the headroom to deliver when you turn it up, this speaker configuration was designed so that it’s still dynamic at lower normal listening levels.”
“Hifi Hunter has been amazing, and the sound has been amazing, better than expected—the acoustic treatments really make the room come alive,” says Darren. “I could not be happier with the room; there is not one thing I would change. I practically live in the room now…”
